Only Happy When It Rains (Illyana Rasputin cover)

Magik has an awesome kit. Most of her cards are just simply incredible and you just want to play them over and over again. Moreover, you have several ways of recurring those cards, including her alter ego ability to put a spell on top of the deck and the amazing Stepping Disc.

In fact, many excellent decks that have been created for Magik that just use a handful of aspect cards. That made me wonder if it could be possible to design a deck for Magik with NO aspect cards at all: just her kit and basic cards. A fun challenge, right?

Only Happy When It Rains is my response to that challenge. And Magik seems to be, indeed, quite happy when everything is gray and rainy :) Let's get to it!

DECK NAME: I love naming my decks after song titles, and this is not exception: it comes from what is probably Garbage's most famous song.

MAIN STRATEGY: The strategy of the deck is quite straightforward. Use your X-Men allies to chumpblock while you put into play all your upgrades and supports, especially Limbo, Utopia and Soulsword. With Magik's easy access to stun and confuse via her Soul Strike and Exorcism spells, and with the help of your allies, it is quite easy to control the board and set up everything in place. Use Magik's once-per-turn discount on the top card of the deck to set up even more quickly and Team-Building Exercise to get your (already cheap) allies for even less resources.

Build Support and Superpower Training can help you get Utopia, Limbo and Soulsword even if you do not draw them early in the game.

LATE GAME: Your goal is to get to 4 attack with Soulsword and Combat Specialist (obtained from Specialized Training) and to use the fact that Soulsword gives you piercing to play Directed Force and get 6-damage basic attacks. With access to multiple ways to ready (Utopia and Stepping Disc), this can get you a significant amount of damage, plus what you can get from your allies and Soul Strike.

IMPORTANT CARDS: Obviously, Soulsword and Combat Specialist are central to the strategy. But Utopia is also very important (to get another basic attack every turn) and Limbo is really helpful in getting a physical resource on top of your deck when you're basic attacking.

NOTE: As mentioned above, this just a challenge for fun. Of course, you can get more powerful versions of the ideas here with access to aspect cards. In fact, I used the core of this deck in The Power Of Thy Sword, which can get you up to 10-damage basic attacks with piercing and overkill.